Laboratory for Single Cell Gene Dynamics, Quantitative Biology Center, RIKEN, 6-2-3 Furuedai, Suita, Osaka 565-0874, Japan.
Laboratory for Single Cell Gene Dynamics, Quantitative Biology Center, RIKEN, 6-2-3 Furuedai, Suita, Osaka 565-0874, Japan
Biochem Soc Trans. 2018 Jun 19;46(3):491-501. doi: 10.1042/BST20170388. Epub 2018 Apr 6.
Nucleosomes are the unitary structures of chromosome folding, and their arrangements are intimately coupled to the regulation of genome activities. Conventionally, structural analyses using electron microscopy and X-ray crystallography have been used to study such spatial nucleosome arrangements. In contrast, recent improvements in the resolution of sequencing-based methods allowed investigation of nucleosome arrangements separately at each genomic locus, enabling exploration of gene-dependent regulation mechanisms. Here, we review recent studies on nucleosome folding in chromosomes from these two methodological perspectives: conventional structural analyses and DNA sequencing, and discuss their implications for future research.
核小体是染色体折叠的基本结构单位，其排列与基因组活性的调控密切相关。传统上，使用电子显微镜和 X 射线晶体学的结构分析方法来研究这种空间核小体排列。相比之下，近年来测序方法的分辨率得到了提高，使得能够分别在每个基因组位点上研究核小体的排列，从而探索基因依赖的调控机制。在这里，我们从这两种方法学角度（传统结构分析和 DNA 测序）综述了近期关于染色体中核小体折叠的研究，并讨论了它们对未来研究的意义。
